by Julie Abe
But I couldn’t think of the right spell. She was right. I was inexperienced. Weak.
“We cannot support an Apprentice who cannot properly serve our people.”
Each word she spoke slammed me down, making me feel small.
“But—”
I bit back a gasp as she tossed my application to the corner of her desk.
My heart burned with pain. I had expected the gracious woman who had taken care of the mother and son before me, not this disapproving leader.
One of her attendants went to take the papers off her desk—to throw it away, to burn it, I wasn’t sure—but I darted forward and snatched my application from under her hand, almost knocking over a small silver bell on a thin chain. Mayor Taira lunged for the bell, holding it by the clapper so it wouldn’t ring.
“This is our town’s charmed bell,” she hissed, stringing the chain around her neck. “It is imbued with powerful magic. And there’s probably more strength in this bell than all of you.”
I swallowed, my hands shaking. “But I can help the town.… Please, may I have a chance? I’m a fully trained witch.”
I glanced back at Charlotte and my heart dropped more. Even she looked at her feet, as if the force of Mayor Taira’s words was absolute.
But… if that was the truth… I’d have to leave this town empty-handed.
I would become magicless.
My voice cracked as I swallowed back my tears. I tried one last time. “I can fix things. I’m really handy. I can set up a magical repair shop that’ll help the town—” I clutched my skirt in my fists. She scribbled on her parchment, probably finishing up notes from her last case.
She was done with me.
“Mother!” A shout came from the reception room, and I spun around. The door shot open and Rin collapsed against the doorframe, panting. She wore her green uniform, but the buttons were undone at her neck and sweat plastered her hair to her face.
“Rin?” I said, confused, looking from her to Mayor Taira.
The mayor pursed her lips, eyes narrowed. “Well, look who decided to show up—”
“Mother, no matter how angry you are at me—please, listen. A ship’s crashed into the cliffs. Passengers and workers are trapped under the main deck and the boat’s sinking.” Rin gasped as she caught her breath. Then she saw me. “Oh, Eva, thank the fates that you’re here.”
Mother? At first, I couldn’t see the slightest resemblance. Looking closely, I realized they both had the same honey-brown eyes, but where Rin’s were gentle, Mayor Taira’s eyes were sharp.
“What happened?” The mayor stood quickly.
“The Hyodo was trying to avoid a skiff that shot out in front of the ship. The captain overcorrected and crashed into the cliffs.”
“My daughter is supposed to be heading in on that boat,” one man cried out. He started shoving his way through the crowd.
A woman clutched her chest. “My husband’s working on the skiffs right now, dear fates.”
The horde of panicked townspeople pushed toward the door, crying and shouting.
Mayor Taira strode into the reception room and slammed her fist down on Kyo’s desk, sending his pot of ink flying to the ground. Her face was white as she roared, “Silence!”
As good as a spell, they stopped and stared at her.
“We’ll mobilize the rescue team.” Mayor Taira turned to her secretary.
Rin’s hands curled into fists. “They’re already at the cliffs, yet there’s only so much they can do.… The ship’s sinking, fast. We need to open up the stairway for the trapped passengers, but there are rocks blocking the top deck.”
I slid my application back into my knapsack. My stomach fluttered nervously, like it was growing wings.
“I’ll go,” I said loudly, standing in the doorway. The crowd’s stares drilled into me.
Mayor Taira shook her head. “You’re just a child.”
My heart beat wildly as I stepped in front of Mayor Taira. “Please, let me go. I may be young, but I’m still a witch. Let me help, for the sake of the people of Auteri.”
Mayor Taira pressed her lips and stared at me for a long second. She turned to Rin with a trace of reluctance. “Can you take her?”
Rin nodded. “Let’s go, Eva.”
She grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room. Passersby jumped out of our way and stared as we ran through hallways, out the grand gold doors, and down the stone stairs.
“I want to go with you, too,” Charlotte called, rushing behind us.
Rin paused. “My motorcycle only takes two, Char. Stay safe here, okay?”
“Can’t the witch take her broom or—” Charlotte muttered. The roar of Rin’s motorcycle cut out her words, but the girl’s gaze pierced me.
Rin wheeled her motorcycle in front of me, engine howling, buckled a helmet onto my head, and slipped onto the bike. “Hold on tight,” she yelled, and then we jetted off. I clung to Rin for dear life.
I couldn’t even secure a spot for myself in this town. How in the fates was I supposed to save a whole boat?
CHAPTER 9
A CRY FOR HELP
Rin revved her motorcycle as we raced to the cliffs. I laced my fingers tighter as we swerved through the boulders and zoomed along a path to the top.
“We’re going to go a little faster now,” Rin shouted over the wind.
Gray-black jagged rocks stuck out of a thin path that was meant for adventures on foot, not motorcycles. Less than fifteen paces to either side, the cliff dropped down to the water. I gulped. “We’re already going pretty fast—”
“No time. I used to ride this path when I was younger. It’s not the easiest, but I can do it.”
We curved up to the summit, twisting and turning, jolting over stones. My insides felt like they had scrambled with my brain.
“Can you tell me what the damage is like?” I shouted, my teeth rattling as I tried to speak.
“The stairway’s blocked by huge boulders. About forty passengers and sailors are stuck below the deck. Some are injured, too.”
I gripped my fingers around my wand. Mother would shrink the rocks with a flick of her wand. Conroy would summon a gust to blow off the boulders. But—I couldn’t do that.
Finally, Rin screeched to a stop.
She helped me unbuckle my helmet and tossed it onto the bike. “C’mon.”
We sprinted to the edge. I gasped when I saw the boats below us.
Skiffs clustered around the crashed ship, like moths fluttering to a dying light. The front of the boat, the bow, had crumpled into the rocks, far below us. Part of the cliff had collapsed onto the deck, covering the front with a mountain of rocks.
“How’re we supposed to get there?” I fought to hide the quaver in my voice.
“There’s a trail.” Rin pointed to a narrow ledge that led downward. “Follow me.”
Pebbles skittered under our feet, falling over the edge and into the water as we rushed down. Paths crisscrossed the walls of the cliffs, widening where they met. We ran along the closest route that took us to the water.
Rin and I skidded to a stop on a ledge ten or fifteen feet above the ship. A cry wedged itself in my throat. There was so much damage. The deck was buried under an avalanche of boulders taller than a grown man. And water gushed into the gaping opening in the hull. The boat was sinking, inch by inch. Voices shouted from inside, pleading for help.
I stepped closer, to crawl down to the ship. Rin held out her hand. “Stay here, Eva, where it’s safe. I don’t want you to get hurt, too.”
A handful of ragged sailors, plump storekeepers, and skiff workers were trying their best to clear out the wreckage. Others dove into the sea in failing attempts to patch up the leak. “C’mon, crew,” one of the men shouted, “we gotta get them out!”
Davy was on a skiff, helping a few unharmed passengers climb down rope ladders and onto the skiffs ferrying them away to the docks. He saw me pacing the ledge and shouted, “Hey, witch-girl!”
&n
bsp; The rescue team paused from pushing at rocks to look up, expectantly, and I inched away. Boulders pressed down on the deck and water poured in through the cracks. The cries of trapped sailors and passengers made my chest wrench with fear.
What if I couldn’t save them? What if they died? My failure would cost people their lives. My mind was drawing a blank when I tried to think of something… anything.…
I didn’t have enough power.
“Aren’t witches supposed to do magic?” snarled a sailor, no more than a handful of years older than me. “Why are you just standing there?” The boy’s thin lips curled disapprovingly, and a thick, raised scar on his jaw twitched as his fingers dug under a rock and strained at it. Another two sailors joined him, and they tossed it down into the waters.
My eyes stung.
“Got any ideas?” Rin said, her face pale.
A passenger’s muffled shout rang from below. “Please! The water’s rising! Help!”
“Hold on!” a woman on the rescue team called back. “We’re going as fast as we can.”
I chewed on the inside of my cheek, until I tasted the metallic tang of my blood.
Mother would have barged in and cast a spell on the spot. The rocks would disappear into thin air, she’d magically knit up the leak and heal the wounded, and the whole town would be drinking her special redbud lemonade by now. But I didn’t have enough magic to repair the whole boat.
Davy dove from a skiff and swam up to the cliffs, pulling himself onto the closest ledge. He hurried up the trail toward us, his boots squelching.
“Don’t they need you at the skiffs?” Rin asked Davy.
He shook his head, eyes downcast. “Soma said I’m not a fast enough rower.” Plucking a strand of green-yellow seaweed off his shoulder, he chucked it at the ground. He kicked at the slimy blob with his soggy boot, but he put too much weight on his leg and slipped instead, his arms windmilling as he caught himself. “Yech! Stupid seaweed. Stupid Soma. I can row fast, but he said I’m too small.…”
Rin grabbed him by the shoulder, steadying him. “Don’t listen to that hired crew. They used to be pirates, and being polite wasn’t part of the job. They only listen to money.”
Davy squeezed seawater from his shirt. “That’s a nice way to phrase it.”
Pirates? I hadn’t seen any bandannas or eye patches, but then again, I was a witch without the proper marks of the Council. I glanced down, and the sailor boy’s beady eyes met mine in a glare. I dropped my eyes to the path.
“Stay with Eva, would you? I’ll go down and help.” Rin turned to me and whispered, “You can do this.” For a second, I didn’t see her; I saw Mother’s warm eyes gazing into mine.
Davy barely had time to nod before Rin unbuttoned her jacket and kicked off her boots. She scaled down the rocks and dove into the water thick with seaweed, bubbling up to talk with the divers and examine the broken hull.
I picked up a small rock from the ledge. It was light in my hands, but the boulders on the ship were definitely not pebbles. The rescue team struggled to untangle the tightly clustered boulders and push them overboard.
What would Mother do? What kind of spell would the others cast?
“How about some sort of charm that makes the rocks disappear?” Davy asked. I jumped. I guess I’d been speaking out loud.
“It’s tricky—I don’t want to make this whole cliff disappear.”
Davy whistled. “Yeah, I prefer standing on two feet.” He untangled another strand of seaweed out of his hair, chucking it at the cliff. Instead of sticking, it slid down.
“I have an affinity for repair magic, so I can fix things.…” My eyes narrowed.
I’d been asking the wrong questions all along.
What can I do?
“What?” he asked, patting his face. “Do I have a crab on my nose or something?”
I tugged out a piece of seaweed dangling from the front pocket of his overalls. “Something better than a crab.”
Cupping the rock and seaweed in my left hand, I pulled my wand out of my skirt pocket. “Become one with seaweed, make rocks slip with speed.”
The small rock trembled in my palm, glowing yellow-green as the seaweed dissolved onto the rock. I fumbled around, trying to get a grip on the thick, slimy coating. As I closed my hands, it slipped and shot straight out, with a splosh! as it hit the water.
“You can do that for the deck!” Davy cried, and I nodded, a tiny spark of hope kindling inside me. “I’ll pile seaweed onto the boulders!”
Without another word, he scaled down the cliff and jumped into the water. I took a deep breath. I hoped this would work.
Taking a knife out of his pocket, he flipped it open and hacked at the long fibers swirling in the waters. “Rin!” he shouted. “Haul this to the deck! Eva needs these on the rocks!”
Rin, her forehead wrinkled with confusion, ran to the railing and lowered a bucket on a rope. Davy piled seaweed into the bucket and knocked on it with the handle of his knife. “All up!”
Some of the rescue team glanced at Rin spreading seaweed around, and then up at me. They started nudging one another. “Is the girl gonna do something, eh?”
I rolled my sleeves up. Cupping my hands around my mouth, I called, “Rin, can you please clear everyone off the ship?”
She nodded and put her fingers between her lips, blowing out an ear-piercing whistle. “All hands—off the deck!”
The majority of the rescue team scrambled past the broken railings, diving into the water. But the crew in gray, along with the boy-sailor, stayed. “I don’t believe it.” The boy’s teeth showed jagged and yellow as he growled. “You expect a pile of seaweed to help this?”
Rin stared straight at the boy. “Well, Soma,” she said evenly, “you can keep pushing the boulders around and get nowhere, or we can see what this witch can do.”
He sneered, his raspy voice like nails scratching down metal. “Witches don’t put seaweed on rocks. If I had magic, I’d actually do something.”
Soma and his friends glared at me one last time before jumping off and clambering onto the gathered skiffs, rowing back to give the ship ample berth.
Up on the cliffs, high above us, an automobile screeched to a stop. I paled as Kyo, the salt-and-pepper-haired attendant, jumped out of the driver’s seat and pulled open the back door. Mayor Taira stepped out, and Charlotte slid out of the car after her.
Rin jumped up onto the rungs of the mast, above the boulders. “All clear, Eva!”
I tried to grip my wand, but it felt like my palm was coated with seaweed-slick sweat. My heart pounded in my chest as Mayor Taira’s heels clicked down the rocky trail, with Kyo and Charlotte close behind her. The mayor’s gaze bored into my back. If I looked at her, I’d probably freeze from fright.
“Do good.” Repeating the Council’s mission felt like lighting a fire within me. Taking a deep breath, I raised my wand straight at the rocks at the top and chanted, “Become one with seaweed, make rocks slip with speed.”
Yellow-green light shot from my wand to the top, encasing the rocks in glowing light. Nothing changed.
My face bleached of all color.
Then the rocks wiggled and the seaweed disappeared with a satisfying pop!
“Try pushing it!” Davy hollered, from the safety of a skiff.
Rin leaned out and nudged the stone mountain with her foot. A boulder and a handful of rocks slipped down the pile and off the side of the ship.
The rescue team cheered, but sweat trickled down my neck. I had only transformed a handful of stones. A mountain of rocks towered before me.
I cast the enchantment again. “Become one with seaweed, make rocks slip with speed.”
More rocks shivered, popped, and slithered down. Magic dribbled out of me. My throat felt like something was stuck in it.
The ship and the sky spun around me, and I stumbled backward, pressing my hand against the cliff. My skin was icy cold and growing even colder.
Turning toward the shi
p, I pinched my arm. I needed to stay awake.
The pile was getting smaller. I kept going, one at a time… another spell… “Become one with seaweed, make rocks slip with speed.”
Rin pushed at the rocks again, and more slipped over the sides and cascaded into the water. Finally, a gap revealed a corner of the stairway.
“You’re almost in!” A sudden shout came from within the boat. “A few stones more!”
“Please, before the water level rises!” another voice cried, ragged.
The rescue team climbed back aboard, swarming toward the opening, straining and straining to drag away the last rocks. They shoved at the largest boulder, pushing with all their might, until the wood under the boulder creaked.
I tried raising my arm, but I could barely stand straight. Breathing heavily, I whispered, “I’ll help.…”
“Whoa, whoa!” one of the sailors shouted. The boulder rolled into the sea, creating a wave that rocked the ship. The rescue team shouted, gripping onto the broken railings, and water gushed onto the deck.
“Wait, wait, I’m not done—” I protested, my voice coming out as a wheeze. The sparkling sea wavered in front of me. I needed a new charm to patch up the leak, so the boat would hold up for everyone inside. Taking one shaky step forward, I pointed my wand at the boat. “Stand up, stand tall, this boat will stay strong and protect all.”
Suddenly, there was a flash of blue sky and yellow sun, and then everything went pitch black.
I heard a voice—Rin’s?—calling my name.
My vision kept blurring and blacking out, but someone held me up, cradling me from hitting the rocks. With a flush of disappointment, I realized what had happened.
I had collapsed from using too much magic.
Rin spoke gently. “We’ve got you, Eva-girl. You’ve done enough. The rescue team is in the ship, and they’ve gotten almost everyone out.”
“The ship isn’t safe,” I insisted, struggling to stand up. “I didn’t put enough magic into the enchantment, so it may be temporary. The ship won’t be able to hold up if water keeps pouring in. I need to reapply the charm.…”
My sight flickered black again, sleep pulling at my consciousness.